BOOK 3
three
the metamorphosis a spatial investigation of Franz Kafka’s acclaimed novel
The Glasgow School of Art | MDes Interior Design 2013-14 | Andriana Themeli
BOOK 3 chapter 2 5
“How not to behave like a proper gentleman” 7
“On sale” 13
“Daddy, please, don’t smash me!” 19
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chapter 2
In the second chapter Gregor discovers his new body, his limits, his senses and he experiences what it feels like to be an insect. When his sister comes to his room he is always hiding under the sofa. In the meantime, his only occupation for killing time is overhearing his family. As his sister discovers his new occupation of climbing up in the walls and ceiling, she decides to clear the bedroom in order for Gregor to have free space to move. With the help of the mother the clearance starts but Gregor, panicked from the thought of losing all the remnants of his human life, climbs the wall and covers the picture of a woman that is hanging from the wall. As mother sees him, she passes out while his sister yells at him. He then goes out in the living room. The father appears and after learning what happened, he starts chasing Gregor around the room. He starts to throw apples at him and one of them sticks in Gregor’s back. At the end, his mother intervenes and begs her husband to spare Gregor’s life.
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“how not to behave like a proper gentleman� 9
The beginning of the second chapter, finds the audience having survived from the father’s menace. Now, it is time for our hero -and for the spectators as well- to discover their new self. How does it feel to be an insect? The way you balance yourself, the way you define your body’s limits changes. In the book, it is referred that Gregor, as most of the bugs, does not feel comfortable with edges and corners. So, a rounded space, imitating the city’s sewers is proposed. Small gaps in the surface of the inclined wall, serve as “keyholes” through which the visitors can peep and overhear to the other side of the room. An interaction is encouraged between the two sides of the surface, between different spectators. The bigger openings allow one to move from the upper level to the lower one where the audience has to crawl in order to proceed to the next chamber and let the narrative to continue..
Brook Drain Manchester, England photo by: International Urban Glow
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overhear
peep
“... he sometimes was able to overhear this and that from the rooms to either side of his, and whenever he heard voices, he would immediately run over to the door on question and press his entire body against it”
“... he took up the habit of crawling back and forth across the walls and ceiling”
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“on sale” 15
An optical illusion is created by displacing the use of the materials in the room. The old wooden floor planks cover 4 sides of the space, thus creating the sense that the visitor may walk either on the floor but on the ceiling of the bedroom as well. This paradox is further supported by a chair placed on the vertical wall, defying thus the gravity of the “human” world. A series of light bulbs, with a decreasing intensity lead to the end of the room, where Gregor’s human figure stands under the weak lighting, covered with a white linen cloth. The audience is called to reflect on the hero’s lost identity, the days of the past and the insecurity of the future. How important is our physical existence, our characteristics? Can you transform without becoming a “shadow” of your past?.
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“Did he really want to have this warm room, comfortably furnished with family heilrooms, tranformed into a cave...�
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“daddy, please, don’t smash me!” 21
At this point of the story, the hero -as in the previous chapter- goes once again out of his room, to the living room. His father starts to chase him in order to push him back to his bedroom. Initially, Gregor feels threatened by the size of his father’s boot-soles, and as he is starting to obey, his father starts throwing apples at him. He manages to make it thanks to his mother appearance, that saves him. The whole room is transformed into a bulky mass of boxes, blocking the views, impeding the movements, menacing the user. The audience has to stoop or crawl in order to escape the “boot-soles” that lie above their head ready to smash them. Skylights, among the boxes allow for natural light to intrude the interior space in order to give hope. After avoiding the menace, the spectators arrive at a space where many red threads are hanging from the ceiling. These elements oblige one to pass through them in order to exit the room. Their color stands for the apples that threatened Gregor. The exit, a metaphor for the rescue of the hero, is indicated with an oversized portrait of the mother’s figure. It is her that helps the protagonist to continue his journey.
Lucy, 2012, Randall Fischer
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father
mother
“...he raised up each foot unusually high, and Gregor marveled at the gigantic dimensions of his boot-soles.”
“... then he saw his mother rush to his father’s side, her unfastened skirts slipping one by one from about her waist as she ran...she clapsed her hands at the back of his father’s head and pleaded with him to spare Gregor’s life.”
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